VANCOUVER – It was a beautiful day at Tourmaline West Stadium, the sunshine providing the backdrop to a pair of exciting Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship baseball games.
When the dust settled, it was the Lewis-Clark State Warriors (35-14, 28-9) who prevailed as CCC champions, defeating the UBC Thunderbirds (36-17, 29-8) in the final game. That came after the T-Birds had beaten the Oregon Tech Owls (38-14, 27-10) earlier in the day, securing their spot in the upcoming NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round.
"Our guys played hard," stated Thunderbirds head coach Chris Pritchett. "There's nothing but positives to come from this week. We get to move on with the chance to go to the World Series which is one of our goals, and there's a whole lot of really good teams that don't get that opportunity. We're going to think about some things that could have been, but we're happy with the season we've had to this point."
The T-Birds had some big swings throughout the day, launching six home runs between the two games. Trent Lenihan had two of them, as he racked up a total of seven RBI out of the 14 for UBC as a collective. Kaden Zarowny, meanwhile, crossed home plate three times against the Owls as he showed his speed on the basepaths.
GAME ONE
It was Lenihan who got the party started in the opener, hitting a solo homer to left field in the opening frame. Zarowny then hit one of his own close to the same spot in the top of the third, before the bomb squad continued with Jonny McGill blasting one to right-centre for this third of the postseason and team-leading 16th on the year.
Down 3-0, the Owls started to get their offence going in the bottom half of the third, with Tyler Horner smacking an RBI double to left. Keanu Mizuta then continued the trend of solo homers with a line drive shot that went the distance the following inning.
UBC got some momentum going again to start the fifth, with a leadoff walk from Zarowny followed by a single from Russell Young that dropped right in front of the centre fielder. Zarowny eventually came home on a slow rolling grounder to short off the bat of Lenihan.
Zarowny was then involved again in the sixth on a similar play, as with two outs he hit a short ground ball of his own to shortstop. He showed his blazing speed by beating out the throw to first, allowing Kellen Bourne to score from third.
Once again though, the Owls hit back as they loaded the bases in the seventh. A two-run single from Horner and a bases loaded walk drawn by Logan Macy tied the game, although UBC reliever James Brock was able to get out of the jam by striking out the next two batters.
The T-Birds grabbed the lead right back with their first batter of the eighth, as David Krahn fired yet another solo home run, this one to left field.
UBC then took advantage of a couple Owls errors. With runners on second and third a failed pick-off attempt led to Kyle Yip scampering home when the third baseman was unable to handle the throw to him. Soon after that, another pair of T-Birds scored on a well-hit ball from Lenihan that was bobbled by an Oregon Tech outfielder.
That was all the scoring the 'Birds needed, as they took the win to advance to the championship round.
"I was most proud when [Oregon Tech] threw up a three-spot to tie it at five, and no one panicked," reflected Pritchett. "We answered right away with our best at-bats of the day to pull ahead, and then James was able to close it out."
GAME TWO
The victory set up a rematch against Lewis-Clark State, who held the advantage going into the game. They just needed one more win to claim the conference title, while the T-Birds needed to win in order to force a winner-take-all bout the following day.
It was the Warriors who got the scoring going in the opening inning, as after a pair of singles got some runners on, Jakob Marquez slammed a home run to put his team up 3-0.
The lead stretched out to four before the Thunderbirds got themselves back into the game with a single swing of the bat. With Zarowny and Young on base, Lenihan stepped up and drilled a three-RBI homer of his own to make it a one-run game.
Down by two once again in the seventh, Marsh beat out an infield single with two outs in a play very similar to the one made by Zarowny in the previous game. This one scored McGill, and the two teams continued to trade runs with an RBI single for the Warriors in their half of the seventh followed by a two-run bomb from
David Draayers in the eighth.
Locked at 6-6 in the final inning, the T-Birds were unable to score and truly put the pressure on the Warriors. The team from Lewiston more than took advantage, as they loaded the bases for Noah Weintraub. The junior from Redmond, Washington, laced a hit to right field that walked off the T-Birds on their own field, an unfortunate side effect of the neutral site nature of the tournament.
Despite the loss, the Thunderbirds have qualified for the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round, keeping their postseason run going. It's the sixth straight season that the 'Birds have made it to that stage, a fantastic level of consistency for the program.
"It's an unbelievable experience for our players," said Pritchett on the upcoming trip to wherever their next tournament ends up being. "To qualify, and to know we're going to come to practice on Tuesday with a goal in mind, is a really good feeling."
"No one's jumping up and down, because we felt like we had a team that could win this whole thing, but our number one goal is to get to the World Series and win it, and we still have that chance."
The draw for the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round will come out in the next few days, with those games set to be played from May 12th to 15th.
